Newsletter-301-April-1996

An
update on last summer's work on the Thames foreshore, undertaken mainly by
volunteers and students.

Tuesday 14th May Annual
General Meeting, followed by the excavation team's summary of their year's
work. Bill Bass will show slides of Martin Biddle's excavation at St Albans, in
which several of our members participated.

These
two meetings are at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley, N3, starting at 8pm
for 8.30pm.

Saturday 8th
June
Our first trip in 1996, to Rye and Bodiam. It will be led by Mickey Watkins and
Mickey Cohen. Details and application form will accompany the May Newsletter.

Trip to Ireland Regrettably,
this has had to be abandoned, for various organisational and cost reasons.
Instead, we are hoping to organise a trip to Cornwall. See the leaflet enclosed
with this Newsletter for the latest details.

News of members

Sadly,
we have to report the deaths of Enid Hill, Tim O'Connell and Ronald Kerman.

Enid,
who died on February 22 aged 80, had long been a HADAS stalwart. She was
involved in many of the society's activities, regularly attending lectures,
outings and weekends away. She dug at West Heath under both Daphne Lorimer and
Margaret Maher, and for many years prepared the labels for the Newsletter
envelopes each month.For many years, too, she was a volunteer at the Museum of
London, working on finds from City excavations, and continuing until she became
ill. Her funeral, at Golders Green Crematorium, was attended by several
members, with vice-chairman Brian Wrigley formally representing HADAS.

Tim,
the husband of Mary O'Connell who has guided the society to many fascinating
locations, died suddenly in February. He had been a regular supporter of our
Christmas dinners. We send our sympathies to Mary.

Ron,
a member for several years, died at the end of February after a long illness.
Our sympathies go to Phyllis, his widow, a regular Minimart helper.

As
this Newsletter went to press, Gill Baker, a popular and long-standing member,
was a patient in the Royal Free Hospital. Dorothy Newbury and Tessa Smith have
visited her and given the society's best wishes. Gill would love to hear from
friends write to her at home, and letters will be forwarded.

A
grandmother's error no doubt caused by the excitement of the moment was
responsible for a slight embarrassment in the March Newsletter, when the birth
of a baby boy was attributed to Marion Newbury, rather than Marion Le Besque
(nee Newbury). Sorry, Marion.

Members' list

A
new list of members is currently being prepared. If any member does not wish
his/her address and/ or phone number to appear on it, please let us know. The
list will only be circulated within the society. If you wish to receive a copy,
please phone Liz Holliday, Hon. Secretary, on 01923 267483.

Concessionary
subscriptions

The
committee is considering ending the concessionary subscription for members over
60. Almost half the membership falls into this category and as expenses,
particularly for the Newsletter and postage, are the same for all, the
committee feels the concession can no longer be justified. Liz Holliday would
welcome any comments before April 19, so they can be reported at the next
committee meeting.

The medieval
'synagogue' in Guildford by
Jack Goldenfeld

In
the 13th century, the Jewish community in Britain numbered about 13,000. Many
of them were expelled in 1290. Until then, the Jews enjoyed a certain degree of
royal protection although they were discriminated against in terms of civil
rights and economic and religious freedom. Nevertheless, they were able to
benefit from periods of peaceful non-interference under some rulers.

Guildford,
the county town of Surrey and a centre of the wool trade, had a Jewish
community of which some individuals' names have survived in documentary form Josce,
Formosa, Floria and Abraham. Isaac of Southwark, a wealthy individual, had a
house in Guildford which was attacked in 1272 and he was just the sort of man
who is likely to have built a synagogue in his home.

The
"synagogue"

The
structure was discovered during the renovation of a shop and consists of the
remains of a small underground room. It is about 10 feet square, built of
chalk, and has a stone bench running round the room with decorative arches
formed by pillars of which only the lower portions survive.

The
upper part of the entire room was deliberately demolished from about 4 feet
above floor level. The enclosed space was filled in with the rubble for the
upper part, except for worked stone which would probably have been salvaged for
re-use elsewhere. The architectural style of the structure dates it
to circa 1180, but it seems that the partial demolition occurred in the late
13th century, since pottery found in the rubble is dated by style to the 1270s.

The
only object from the room itself with a positive dating is a silver penny of
Henry III, minted between 1251 and 1272, found between two stones of the
seating bench in the centre of the east wall. Coins of this type were withdrawn
from circulation in 1279 and it is unlikely that this particular example was
lost by accident. It is more likely that it was deliberately pushed down into
the very narrow slot formed by the abutment of the stone slabs.

Another
object is a slim iron pin which was found in one of two drilled holes,
diagonally opposed, in a stone slab which had apparently formed part of the
doorway. If the room was a synagogue, the two holes would have been the fixing
points for a "mezuzah", a piece of inscribed parchment with the texts
Deuteronomy vi 4-9 and xi 13-21, enclosed in an elongated case and attached to
the door post.

There
are scorch marks near the base of a pillar on the eastern wall which may be
from a lamp kept burning continuously, perhaps providing additional light by
which to read the Torah, the scrolls of Mosaic law. There are faint traces of
coloured decoration in the blind arcades, between the pillar columns, which

will
be subjected to specialist examination. Stairs rise to the now destroyed upper
section, leading perhaps to what once had been the ladies gallery, since male
and female worshippers would have been segregated. The main doorway still has
the iron stub of a hinge-swivel embedded in the wall, its size indicating that
it could have supported the weight of a heavy door.

In
conclusion

I
agree with some authorities who are 80% sure that this was a synagogue, even
though some unmistakeably Jewish form of evidence needs to emerge to be
absolutely certain. The decoration and stonework suggest religious rather than
secular use, whilst the discreet placement at the rear of the main property for
this cell-like room seems compatible with what is known of the circumstances
for Jewish worshippers at that time.

It
does not, apparently, resemble any other building of that time known of in
Britain and was too small and in the wrong location to have been used for a
civic purpose. It is considered that it is unlikely to be a small Christian
chapel because the shape and arrangements are wrong. I hope one day to be in a
position to follow up this brief initial survey with a definitive interpretation
of the Guildford medieval site but, in the meantime, would compliment the
Guildford Museum Volunteer Excavation Unit on their discovery and thank them
very much indeed for allowing me to visit it and write about it. I am sure
other members of HADAS will join with me in wishing them much success in their
on-going endeavours.

Sites under
scrutiny

English
Heritage have recommended an Archaeological Watching Brief for a proposed
development at the Hadley Brewery Site, Hadley Green, Barnet.

They
have also indicated that an assessment of archaeological implications should be
carried out for a planning application at Copped Close, 15 Totteridge Village,
N20.

Would you
believe it!

From
the Guardian:

A
plaque on the deck of HMS Victory in Portsmouth, marking where Nelson fell
during the Battle of Trafalgar, is to be moved because visitors keep falling
over it.

From the Ham
& High:

A
reader in Brunner Close, Hampstead Garden Suburb, recounts an incident whose
remains could leave a puzzle for future archaeologists.

"Today
a large fox shot through our hedge and attacked a small white duck sitting on
the lawn. After a five-second tussle, the fox zoomed away, leaving a broken
tooth behind and scratch marks on the duck's head. The duck was made of concrete!"

Places to go...

A
distinguished line-up of specialists will be leading the weekend seminar on
Bronze Age Britain organised by Oxford University's Department of Continuing
Education, on April 19-21. Contributors include Stuart Needham of the British
Museum on chronology, Mike Olney of the Fenland Archaeo­logical Trust on the
role of ritual at Fengate, Sean McGrail formerly ofthe National Maritime Museum
on water transport, and Martin Bell from the University of Wales on changing
environments.

Residential
fees are £98.50 (shared), non-residential £68.50 (with meals) or £41 (without).
There may well be some places left ring the Archaeology Course Secretary on
01865 270369 to check.

Other
OUDCE forthcoming courses, part of the Postgraduate Diploma in Field
Archaeology but open to all, include a field survey week June 23-27 and
archaeology and the law, November 20. Further details on the number above.

Birkbeck
College with Harvey Sheldon is this summer again proposing urban training
excavations in Southwark, with the co-operation of the London Borough of
Southwark, on sites that are awaiting development there. The sites are close to
areas of Roman and medieval settlement near the Old Kent Road and Peckham.

The
courses, run in conjunction with MoLAS, will provide training in surveying,
excavation and recording techniques, initial finds processing and other aspects
of archaeological investigation.

They
are non-residential, and will run over the five weeks beginning June 24. The
fee will be £125 per week of attendance, to include all tuition. Contact Lesley
Hannigan, Centre for Extra-Mural Studies, Birkbeck College, 26 Russell Square,
WC1B 5DQ, for further details.

Training
excavations also continue this summer at Wortley Roman villa in
Gloucestershire, running from June 22. through most of July and the first half
of August. Tuition fees are £83 a week, and local B&B is available at
around £12-£15 a night. For more information, contact Vicky Wilson, 01453
542708.

A
new course aiming to offer a complete introduc­tion to archaeological fieldwork
runs at St Mary's University College, Twickenham (a college of Surrey
University), from next September.

The
28 two-hour sessions, which will each consist of an introductory slide-lecture
followed by structured practical work and discussion, run on Friday afternoons.
The course will be linked to the Sedgeford Hall Archaeological Research
Project, covering an area where deposits range from neolithic to medieval.
Summer fieldwork is planned.

The
fee is £195, and a £50 deposit is asked for advance enrolments. Contact David
Bellingham, Classical Studies, St Mary's University College, Waldegrave Road,
Twickenham, TW1 4SX, 0181-240 4109 for more information.

Bill Bass
reports on the February lecture

Archaeology goes
Underground

There
was a good turn-out for the first lecture of 1996 in our new downstairs room at
Avenue House. As well as HADAS's President, Michael Robbins, it was good to see
some new faces and some longer-term members returning to the fray.

Our
lecturer was Mike Hutchinson, Archaeological Project Manager with the Museum of
London Archaeological Service. He spoke about their work on the Jubilee Line
Extension Project in the Westminster and London Bridge areas. Stratford, also
affected, has been reported in a previous Newsletter. This extension to the
Underground is a major undertaking and has provided MoLAS with several years'
work. Most excavation concentrated around the sub-surface ticket hall and
access areas, the tunnel-bores being too deep for any archaeology.Mike
described how in the prehistoric andRoman periods the Thames was wider and
slower moving, its banks formed by marshy areas and mud-flats with channels
flowing around sandy-gravel islands or eyots.Westminster stands on one such
eyot Thorney Island, mainly created by channels of the River Tyburn meeting the
Thames. The station is located on the northern branch of one of these channels,
and here MoLAS found a sandy foreshore overlain with a sequence of alluvial
deposits and peats formed by varying changes of river and sea levels. Finds
from sand under the alluvium included worked flints, some neolithic in date,
and pottery, probably of the late Bronze or early Iron Age. Unfortunately,
there were none of the votive-offering type Iron Age artifacts sometimes
associated with these watery deposits. From the post-medieval period, a
barrel-lined well contained fine examples of "watering can" vessels
in Guys-ware fabric.

Over
at the north Southwark site there were several excavations running
concurrently. Mike concentrated on one adjacent to Borough High Street. A new
ticket hall was to be built close to the present London Bridge Station.

Members
may have seen the debate recently as to whether there was a Plautian invasion
base in or near London, eg Southwark, Mayfair or Westminster, and to where
Aulus Plautius crossed the Thames. This area in general could be important to help
establish a firm date for the crossing and to indicate whether it was of
military or civilian origin. Borough High Street aligns well with the known
Roman road leading from Kent, an alignment which has survived for some 2,000
years and has accounted for the fairly good preservation of earlier Roman
deposits. Alas, later truncation has destroyed much of the archaeology post
250AD.

A
piled wall was sunk around the excavation site and an artificial road-deck
constructed above, the archaeologists digging carefully to avoid a mass of
service pipes, cables and sewers. Unfortunately, the main north-south Roman
road was not encountered, being just west of the dig.

The
earliest phase uncovered dated to about 60AD and showed narrow timber-framed
buildings aligned on east-west side streets, assumed to be lanes off the main
road. In places these lanes showed evidence of wheel ruts and repairs. Fire,
indicated by red and black deposits, had destroyed these rooms of mud-brick
walls, and pottery dated the conflagration to 60 or 61 AD. Boudica's calling
card, perhaps?

The
next firmly dated phase was c.120AD, the intervening years being difficult to
interpret and unravel. Buildings of stone foun­dation replaced the previous
timber slot beams or post holes, and walls were of tile. There appears to have
been a mixture of residential and industrial use. The presence of blacksmiths
was shown by kiln remains and the accumulation of hammer-scale, their workshop
being in use for around 100 years. Bread ovens were evident, as well as
butchered bones.

An
unusual and puzzling feature was a "pad stone", a small plinth of
stone and tile possibly used in a colonnade base. This led to suggestions of a
monumental and prestigious building lining the road to London, maybe a fitting
sight for Hadrian's arrival.

A
selection of finds included amphora (one with inscription), decorated Samian
ware, mortaria and domestic ware in many fabrics. Among the oil lamps found was
one particularly fine example, from Holland, in the form of a foot wearing a
thonged sandal with the wick protruding through the big toe. It can be seen in
the newly refurbished Roman gallery at the Museum of London.

Michael
Robbins put his experience in running London Underground to good purpose in
giving the vote of thanks for this entertaining lecture.

An
extensive survey by MoLAS of the Westminster area in general, covering
contours, environmental and documentary evidence, was published in the London
Ar­chaeologist (Vol 7, No 14); other monographs are planned.

News from our
neighbours

April
27 is an important date in the calendar of the Finchley Society. The society
will be celebrating its 25th anniversary with a social event, including buffet
and wine, a celebration cake, musical enter­tainment from the Hertsmere Choral
Group and a pictorial display of the society's many activities.

The
party will be held in the Professional Devel­opment Centre, 451 High Road, N12,
from 7.15pm. Guests will include Councillor Suzette Parker; Mayor of Barnet.
Tickets cost £9.50, including all drinks and buffet, from Mrs G. Davison, 36
Sherwood Hall, East End Road, N2 OTA (0181-444 8395).

HADAS
sends best wishes for the anniversary.

April
is AGM month for Enfield Archaeological Society, and the meeting on April 19,
at the Jubilee Hall, junction of Chase Side and Parsonage Lane, Enfield,
starting at 8pm will include reports of the society's work, including
information about Forty Hall and its previous owners, and a look at
recently-discovered underground air-raid shelters.

The
society has also arranged a conducted tour of Forty Hall and its grounds on
Saturday April 27 (starting at 2.30pm from the main entrance). The cost is £1,
but names, addresses and phone numbers of those who wish to attend must be sent
beforehand to Mr G.R. Gillam, 23 Merton Road, Enfield EN2 OLS (0181-367 0263).
A second tour the next day, Sunday April 28, is possible if the event is
over-subscribed.

News
of the Mill Hill and Hendon Historical Society is provided by R. J.. Nicholson.
He writes: Two more of our members have become authors, in each case writing their
autobiography.

Sir
Cyril Philips, former president, describes in Beyond the ivory Tower (Radcliffe
Press,£24.95) how he was born in India and learned Hindi, Urdu and Malay before
coming to England to complete his education. A fascinating aspect of the story
is his war service, including spells in Gibraltar —where he found the pupils
remarkably knowledgeable about horse racing, their previous teacher having been
George Wigg, a noted racing enthusiast and India, Where his experience was
particularly valuable.

There
are Indian connections, too, in Ron Davies' book, Some Blessed Hope: Memoirs of
a Next to No­body (The Book Guild, £9.99). Few people can have had the
distinction of carrying Mahatma Gandhi's spinning wheel into the family home in
Lancashire, when the Indian leader visited them pre-1939.

Ron
Davies was brought up a Quaker and at the outbreak of war he joined the army in
a non-combat­ant unit. He came to the conclusion that he should take a more
active part in a fight against what he saw as a great evil, was posted to the
Intelligence Corps and sent to India. On demobilisation he completed his degree
at Oxford, then practised as a barrister. Later he joined the legal department
of the Inland Revenue, and after that lectured in law, finally be­coming a
full-time industrial tribunal chairman.

A call to all
diggers:Out with your trowels

Barnet
Council has kindly agreed to allow HADAS to carry out a further excavation of
the garden at Church Farmhouse Museum. At the completion of our work in 1993 we
suggested that additional investigations on a smaller scale which would complement
our initial exploration, and we now have the opportunity to implement these
proposals.

Our
primary interests will be the medieval ditch feature located on the east site
and the nature of the buried old land surface on the northern edge. The interim
report of June 1994 provides full details of our previous work.

Requirements:
Sturdy footwear, site clothing, hard hat (a few may be available on site) and
if possible a good quality (forged) 4" pointing trowel.

Facilities:
Tea and coffee will be provided. Bring a packed lunch or buy from The Greyhound
next door where the food is reasonably priced and quite good. Please note:
toilet facilities are only available in the pub from midday or the museum from
2pm. There are none on site.

Public
transport: Hendon Central on the Northern Line is about a 15-minute walk away.
Buses 113 and 186 stop at Watford Way, 143 and 183 stop in The Burroughs closer
to the site.

Open
weekend: It is planned to hold an Open Weekend on Saturday and Sunday June 1-2
when the public will be introduced to the work of the society. Non-digging
volunteers will be needed for this weekend.

If
you are interested in taking part in our first excavation of 1996 or would like
further informa­tion, please contact Brian Wrigley on 0181-959 5982 or Roy
Walker on 0181-361 1350.

Jennie Cobban
investigates Edward IV's missing memorial to the soldiers slain in the Battle
of Barnet:

Right royal
mystery of the chantry chapel

What
was it? Where was it? Why was it built? The mysteries associated with the
chantry chapel built by Edward IV after the Battle of Barnet appear to be
endless, and as I am presently trying to write about the subject, I wonder if
any HADAS members could give me a helping hand on various points. Certain
aspects concerning this chapel puzzle me very much indeed.

We
are told, time after time, in local publications that the common soldiers were
buried "on" or "near to" the field of battle, and it is
constantly repeated that Edward later (how much later?) had a chantry chapel
erected near to the burials, and appointed a priest to sing masses for the
souls of the slain. Whenever this information is offered, the same source
always seems to be trotted out, i.e. the Tudor historian, John Stow. However, I
now understand it is mentioned in the Great Chronicle of 1512.

We
are told in various modern local sources that when Stow visited Barnet and was
shown the remains of the chapel, it was being used as a dwelling house, and
that the upper quarters of the chapel still remained (how?). Local information
also states that in Stow's time the house was being rented out at a rent of
20/- per annum, by permission of the king's officers, and that a later passage
may provide a clue to the location of the chapel. The extract is said to run
thus:

"And
when the king and his company were come to the open space which lieth to the
north of Barnet Town, they turned somewhat to the left hand, where three
hundred yards or thereabouts from the highway there standeth a clump of trees.
There did the king and they that were with him light down from their horses and
having uncovered knelt for a space. Then the king rose up, and after he had
talked for a space with Master Aston, he mounted his horse, as also did his
company. Then sticking spurs, they rode northwards..."

Well,
all this is far too vague and out of context for me, and unfortunately I do not
have sufficient time during the day to chase down Stow's original work, The
Chronicles of England, first published in 1580, in order to check either the
accuracy or the context of these oft-used snippets of information. My first
question must therefore be, does any HADAS member have access to a reliable
transcript of the section of Stow's Chronicle relevant to the chantry chapel of
the Battle of Barnet, or alternatively, has anybody produced an index to this
document? Meanwhile, I am also trying to pin down the exact 1512 reference in
the Great Chronicle.

The
Battle of Barnet chantry chapel has several traditional locations. One is
Hermitage Cottage, now within Wrotham Park because the writer of a c17 survey
of the manor of South Mimms was told that this was where the chapel used to be.
Another location favoured by some, including the historian Frederick Cass, is
Pymlicoe House on Hadley Green because it has a couple of supposedly c15 or c16
timber-frame walls within the building and is said to fit the location as
indicated by Stow, quoted above.

Yet
another traditional location is the Mount House in Hadley, because of its
mound, and the site of the Priory at Hadley, because of its name. Presumably
because of Stow's description of the chapel as having been converted into a
house, all local historians, when seeking the chantry chapel, have thus
concentrated on particular houses which may, or may not, have been chapels at
one time.

The
problem is that if our chantry chapel were indeed a free-standing building,
erected by Edward from scratch on a virgin site, then it was very unusual.
Research into chantry chapels in general suggests strongly that when these
mortuary chapels were established (the medieval sources, in fact, use the word
"built"), what this actually meant was that they were set up within
the fabric of existing churches, and were not separate chapels at all. A
chantry priest could not be kept fully employed, after all, in singing masses
for the dead all the time, even if he was employing extremely elaborate
intercessions such as the Trental of St Gregory, which necessitated the singing
of thirty masses over the period of a year.

Most
chantry priests were expected to assist in parochial services also, and it
would surely have made more sense for Edward to utilise an altar in one of the
local churches for his chapel, rather than erect a special building. Hadley
church, for instance, was presumably on the battlefield itself and therefore
"close to" the burial place of the soldiers.

It
is also worth pointing out that many chantry chapels were always intended to be
of a temporary nature, and were often established for a fixed period of time
only, often ten years. If the chantry had been erected at, say, Hadley church,
then the church's rebuilding 23 years after the battle may account for our
surprising lack of local records for a chapel which was built by a king after a
major battle.

I
am aware that there are certain objections to this theory which is, of course,
pure speculation, but I put these ideas forward in the hope of stimulating
further research. Perhaps it is time to look at the evidence for Battle of
Barnet chantry chapel a little more critically, and to get some fresh ideas flowing.

Stow
may simply have been shown a location for the chapel by the locals who came up
with something just to keep him happy.

Edward's
motivation for erecting the chapel has never been examined by local historians,
but his reasons for doing so are quite understandable, when we consider that he
was responsible for sending a vast number of soldiers precipitately off to
Purgatory without the benefit, presumably, of the last rites. The medieval
Catholic Purgatory was almost indistinguishable from Hell itself lots of red
hot pincers and the like and not a nice place in which to find yourself
abandoned when you died.

Edward
would have been well aware that he might actually come face to face with these
resentful souls when he eventually entered Purgatory himself, unless he had
done his best to help the soldiers through as quickly as possible by having
masses sung for their souls. Local Barnet people would also, no doubt, have
been anxious that everything possible should be done for the hundreds of dead,
lest they hung around the area as vengeful spirits.

I
would welcome any comments on the above, and I would especially welcome any
information concerning our earliest references (the exact wording being
important) to the Battle of Barnet chantry chapel. I understand that HADAS once
undertook a research project into the chapel, and I would be grateful for any
further details.

Many
thanks to Pamela Taylor, Graham Javes and John Heathfield who have already
given me much assist­ance in trying to penetrate the mysteries of the Battle of
Barnet.

A giant hoax?

There's
a splendid controversy raging over the Cerne Abbas giant, which HADAS visited
during the week­end in Dorset in 1992. A major article in the Sunday Times last
month reported new research which sug­gested the figure a "well-endowed
warrior" as the newspaper modestly put it had been cut into the chalk
hillside only 300 to 400 years ago, not nearly two millennia earlier.

The
proponents of this argument believe the giant was the work of the "ruder
inhabitants of Cerne Abbas" and was intended to tease the local Puritans.
Their claims are based on a discovery that although there are many references
to the giant in local records from the 17th century onwards, nothing appears
before then. But English Heritage and local archaeologists and historians cling
resolutely to the belief that the carving dates from Roman times.

Good news, and
bad

While
the British Museum is celebrating its £3 million National Lottery grant for a
major development, including a glass-roofed central square and transformation
of the round Reading Room, things are less happy at the Museum of London.

It
is facing severe financial difficulties follow­ing a cut in its government
grant. After inflation and cuts from the Corporation of London, the mu­seum
will be £1 million short in 1997-98, leading to the loss of up to 40 jobs and
affecting such services as cataloguing and conservation. MoLAS, however, as a
separate trading activity, is not affected.

Notice of AGM

The
Annual General Meeting of the society will be held at 8.30pm on Tuesday May 14,
1996 at Avenue House, East End Road, Finchley, N3. Coffee will be available
from 8pm.

Nominations
for officers and members of the committee must be submitted to me on the
nomination form below, to reach me no later than May 7, 1996. The consent of
your nominee(s) must be obtained in writing before submitting their name(s).

Resolutions
submitted by members for consideration at the AGM must be received by me not
later than April 23, 1996.

Derek Batten
goes west for his archaeology,

In the footsteps
of Custer and the Cheyenne

My
continued involvement in archaeological surveys of Indian Wars Battlefields
seems to have begun more by accident than design, but once bitten, the phone
has only to ring, an American accent has only to enunciate the word
"dig" and I'm on my way. So in the first week of November 1995, I
found myself at the Washita Battlefield in Western Oklahoma.

The
land on which Black Kettle and his Cheyennes camped and where, on November 27
1868, George Armstrong Custer led his dawn attack (and established his Indian
Fighter reputation) is in private ownership. All that is available to the
visitor is an overview just off the highway and a diorama.

Most
of the land is owned by a charming lady, Betty Westner, who was out in the
field with us each day. It was hoped that the whole area would eventually be
purchased by State or Federal agency or a combination of both so a National
Monument could be designated. All that seemed to be missing was the political
will and the money, but we hoped the archaeological survey would help.

The
whole exercise was under the control of the Oklahoma Historical Society,
represented in the field by Dr Bill Lees, a giant of a man with the largest
walrus moustache I have ever seen. Others in the team were names familiar from
the archaeological work previously carried out at Little Big Horn.

The
main site problem was topographical. It is generally agreed that the course of
the Washita River has changed. Several floods have occurred over the years,
altering the ground level.

There
was a ceremonial beginning when Laurence Heart, a local full-blood Cheyenne
elder, performed a traditional herb fire ceremony. Each participant sprinkled a
small quantity of tobacco on the fire and incantations were made to the gods to
look kindly on our week's work. They must have been oversleeping as the first
three days' recoveries were not very startling. We worked particularly hard on
Day Three for just four artifacts.

By
the end of the week, however, a total of nearly 200 battle-related artifacts
had been recovered, most being Spencer cartridge cases. These established troop
positions and gave a number of useful clues as to the location of the village.

Final
conclusions must await the final report but by the end of the week, Bill Lees'
moustache was elongating sideways with his smile.

I
have since received an encouraging letter from Betty Westner. There is now a
bill before Congress, part of which includes the purchase of the Washita
Battlefield by the Federal Government and its subsequent classification as a
National Monument. So it looks like our week's hard work was not in vain.